At the Nikkel og Olivin nickel mine near Narvik, Norway,
Outokumpu has been the operator since 1993. The mine was
opened in 1989 and in 1992 Outokumpu commenced operations
to secure concentrate deliveries to Harjavalta's nickel smelter in
Finland. Annual production is about 740 000 tonnes of nickel ore
grading 0.5 per cent Ni, about 25 000 tonnes of nickel
concentrate and about 2800 tonnes of nickel metal. All
production comes from underground operations which makes
Nikkel og Olivin AS perhaps the lowest grade underground
nickel mine in the world today. Production is currently from one
of two orebodies, which is known as the Western orebody. The
Eastern orebody was worked out by 1995. During Outokumpu's operational period the Western orebody
has been delineated and taken to production. The underground
exploration and definition drilling involved about 15 000 in of
diamond drilling, which was carried out during a nine-month
period. Following this a feasibility study was undertaken and
production commenced. Improvements were made to the mining methods. Previously
the mine utilised open pit equipment underground and this
resulted in an enormous amount of additional tunnelling. Grade
control and ore delineation were previously based on sparse
diamond drilling and all geological information was processed
manually. The improvements included the use of underground
sludge drilling to increase the amount of geological information,
the of a new computer system for grade control and
mine planning, new automated underground longhole drilling
equipment and the of underground mining
equipment which reduced the size of the drives. These changes
produced a marked increase in the efficiency of the underground
Mine.